Sedative drug requirements during flexible bronchoscopy

Background: There is a paucity of data comparing doses of sedative medication during bronchoscopy in immunosuppressed and non-immunosuppressed patients.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to define the sedative medication doses used in specific patient groups during bronchoscopy.

Methods: Bronchoscopy was performed under local anesthesia, sedation with intermittent boluses of intravenous midazolam and intravenous hydrocodone 5 mg. Two hundred and thirty-nine consecutive bronchoalveolar lavage procedures were included. Procedures in non-immunosuppressed patients were classified as controls (n = 91). Procedures in immunosuppressed patients who received midazolam consisted of stem cell transplant (34), solid organ transplant (25), chemotherapy (33), HIV with drug abuse (10), HIV (5), prednisone (17) and immunosuppression for other diseases (12). Intravenous propofol was administered during 12 procedures due to inability to achieve optimal sedation with midazolam in a previous bronchoscopy (stem cell transplant recipient 1, lung transplant for cystic fibrosis 5) and during the same bronchoscopy due to inadequate sedation with a high dose of midazolam--renal transplant recipient 1, drug abuse (HIV 1, renal transplant recipient 1), bronchoscopy combined with gastroscopy (2) and a hypoxemic patient (1). The mean dose of propofol administered was 2.8 +/- 1.3 mg/kg.

Results: Midazolam requirement was significantly higher in patients with stem cell transplantation (0.09 +/- 0.05 mg/kg) compared with controls (0.06 +/- 0.03 mg/kg; p = 0.0002). In the HIV patients with drug abuse (0.12 +/- 0.10 mg/kg), there was a tendency for the need of a higher dose of midazolam compared with the control group (p = 0.0754).

Conclusion: Stem cell transplant recipients and selected HIV patients with drug abuse need higher doses of midazolam for bronchoscopy.